May 12, 2018

Death of Montoliú in Spain, 1892

Francisco Montoliú, the great pioneer
of the theosophical movement in the Spanish-speaking world, was 31 years old when
he passed away on 10 May 1892.

One month before his death, Montoliú had a letter
published by Henry S. Olcott in “The Theosophist”,
in which he said:

“I wish our Indian brothers to know
that in Spain we give our greatest attention to spreading a knowledge of
Theosophy broadcast rather than to organizing Branches. In a country like ours,
which is more Oriental than Occidental in character, the very few individuals
who are active and devoted to the Great Work, would find themselves hindered
rather than helped in their activity by local organizations; if they formed
them under the delusive hope of making them as perfect as they should be, they
would find themselves confronted by two formidable foes. Indolence and Violence
- two extremes which may be said to dominate the Spanish temperament.”

“The two Theosophical centres,
Madrid and Barcelona, are alone formed, by natural affinity - one might say
Karmically - yet they are very solidly established. At Corunna the influence is
beginning to come to a focus, and one sees the germs of future Branches showing
themselves in other places. Here (at Barcelona) our Theosophical lectures are
well attended, but I am afraid that if many like to listen, few seem ready to
work or to train their memory to retain what is said. As regards our
publications I need not speak, since they have already been noticed in the Theosophist”.[1]

To this, Olcott added a
commentary:

“If one would estimate the enormous
obstacles that our Spanish brothers are daily opposed by, let him read the
religious history of Spain and the observations of contemporary travellers upon
the condition of the Spanish Church and churchmen. They are in reality heroes
of a Theosophical Forlorn Hope, and have already earned the respect and
gratitude of all their fellow-members by their gallant assault upon national
prejudice and conservatism. O.”

Life is cyclic, and it
demands courage.

In the 21st century, the
theosophical movement may undergo another beginning when people around the
world awaken to universal wisdom and reject religious bureaucracies. The new
generations of theosophists will have reasons to cherish the inspiring life-examples
left by Francisco Montoliú and other pilgrims.

(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)

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Death of Montoliú in Spain, 1892

Henry S. Olcott[2]

Our cause in Spain has just
suffered a most serious loss in the untimely death of Señor Don Francisco de
Montoliu y de Tagores, F.T.S. of Barcelona. So far as our propaganda in
Spanish-speaking countries is concerned, the blow is of only less severity than
the departure of H.P.B. to the whole Society.

Thanks to his rare genius, industry
and self-sacrifice, our literature was beginning to be spread and be welcomed
throughout Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Central and South America, the Philippines and
the West Indies. He had translated into classical Spanish “Isis Unveiled” and
other important theosophical works and was publishing the former by
subscription in monthly numbers.

From his aristocratic and bigoted
Roman Catholic family he met with angry opposition and yet threw himself into
the arduous work of our Society with generous self-abandonment and quenchless
zeal. Every one of his letters to me breathed the holy influence of
unselfishness and a courage not to be daunted by opposition.

Looking throughout the whole
Society, I could pick out no one more devoted to conscience, more ardently
loving for mankind, more free from local and sectarian narrowness. His death
was entirely unexpected. An unanswered letter of his was lying on my
writing-table when the touching official and personal notice of the calamity
came to me from our beloved friend, his colleague Señor Don José Xifré. The
circumstances of his death-bed were mournfully tragic.

He left us on the 10th May after a
week’s illness, caused by catching a cold on his chest which turned into
typhoid fever - the result, I fear, of nervous exhaustion from overwork. Señors
Xifré, Roveratta, Bosch and Das were present to the end at the wish of our
dying Brother, in spite of the insults heaped upon them and him by the family
and the Jesuit priests.

“The death” - says Señor Xifré -
“was admirable, an example which none of us can ever forget.” Despite all the
dictates of propriety and deference to the wishes of the dying Theosophist, the
priests made a sectarian ceremonial, which seems to me to have been, under the
circumstances, nothing better than a profanation of true religious feeling, and
then spread the cruel falsehood that the victim had been “converted”: the usual
dodge of the clergy to cover defeat in the case of nearly every freethinker.
Our watchful Fellows with difficulty managed to save the more important among
Montoliu’s T.S. Documents; the priests - poor, blind fools who have learnt
nothing from history! - seized the rest and burnt them to ashes.

Far from sitting idle in blank
despair, our surviving Spanish comrades have instantly taken up the torch as it
dropped from dear Montoliu’s dead hand, and I have received a circular
requesting that all correspondence concerning the Theosophical Society may be
addressed as follows: Redacción y administración de los Estudios Teosóficos,
Calle Tallers, 66, Barcelona, Spain.

H.S.O.

NOTES:

[1] “The Theosophist”, Adyar, India,
April 1892, page 452.

[2]The following article is
reproduced from “The Theosophist”, July
1892, p. 599. Original title: “Death of Montoliu”.

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The article “Death
of Montoliú in Spain, 1892” was published in our associated websites on 12
May 2018.

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On 14 September
2016, a group of students decided to found the Independent Lodge of Theosophists. Two of the priorities adopted by
the ILT are learning from the
past and building a better future.